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There are lots of mathematical things that you can spot or do when you are outside or on journeys. This can make boring walks more interesting too! Young children may not understand what numbers mean, for instance percentages on adverts, but they will enjoy spotting numbers they know.

Going out and about gives your child the chance to look for numbers written everywhere, do some counting, talk about left and right and where things are and talk about time and how long things take.

Number Hunt

Numbers, written large and small, are used for lots of different things:

on speed signs notices adverts price labels on doors fire hydrants car registration numbers buses and bus stops timetables tickets and receipts tills and scales prices in shops

Useful questions What numbers can you see? Why are they there? What are they for? How many number fours can you find?

 

Just counting

• How many cars are there parked in this road?

• How many road humps are there?

• How many: bicycles, cats, pillar boxes, lampposts, trucks, dustbins, bits of litter?

• Guess first: how many dogs do you think we will see today?

• Let's see if we can count 20 lampposts. Have we counted nearly 20 yet, or have we got a lot more to count?
  We've counted 19.
  How many more?

• Can you use your fingers to count them?
  Or are there too many?
  How will we remember?

Which way do we go?

Together you can try and remember the things you pass on the way: first the pillar box then your friend's house then the park
then the telephone box then the post office. Can you remember which way you turn? Out of the front door, turn left, along the road, straight over the cross roads, right at the main road.

It helps if your child has something marking their right shoe or arm, to help them remember.

When you get back, your child can draw a map of the route with the important sights and turnings.

Young children's maps will not be accurate, but drawing will help them to imagine where things are and to learn the language of directions.

Left and right are very hard things to learn, but getting to know the words is a good start.

Timing

How long does it take? You can look at your watch before leaving and see what time it is when you arrive. How many minutes? Does it take the same time to come back? Suppose your child skips back, is it quicker? If you sing quietly, or are in a car, you can see how many of your favourite songs it takes and whether you can sing more or less than you guess.